Herbal and Folk Medicines for Chilblains

These were a common affliction in Britain until cars replaced winter walking and houses were centrally heated. Folk remedies were varied. Walking in the snow, dipping them in one’s own urine, and beating with holly sprigs until blood was drawn are among the remedies used within living memory in East Anglia. In another version of the holly remedy, the berries were crushed with lard to make an ointment. The berries of bryony were crushed and rubbed on chilblains in Essex (Hatfield 1994: appendix). In the Highlands of Scotland, deer tallow was rubbed on chilblains (Beith 1995: 170). Dipping in urine was used here too, or in a solution of washing soda and hot water. An ointment made from pig’s fat, flowers of sulphur, and olive oil was a traditional remedy of Romany origin but used in Scotland, and an oil prepared from fat and the leaves of adder’s tongue fern (Ophioglossum vulgare) was also used.

Chickweed boiled in lard made a healing ointment for chilblains in Inverness-shire, Scotland. Berries of bittersweet or woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) were used in the Cotswolds, and the berries of black bryony (Tamus communis) were used in the Isle of Wight. Poultices were prepared from various fruits and vegetables. Rotten apples were used to treat chilblains in County Antrim, Ireland; beetroot wine was used in Devon; onion was rubbed onto chilblains in Wales; potato was used similarly in County Dublin. In Essex, a slice of raw salted potato was rubbed on. The celebrated Mrs. Beeton recommended the inner flesh of turnip mixed with mustard and grated horseradish, as an application for chilblains (Souter 1995: 143). Leek juice mixed with cream was another suggestion (Black 1883: 203).

In North American folk medicine, as one would expect given the harsher extremes of climate, there is a wealth of remedies for chilblains. In a collection of early settler remedies, there are several recommendations taken from Wesley’s Primitive Physic, and also two domestic remedies of unknown origin. One consists of chalk dipped in vinegar and rubbed on the surface of the chilblain; the other of a hog’s bladder dipped in spirits of turpentine and applied (Robertson 1960: 9). Meyer in his collection of American folk remedies gives recipes including turnip, parsnip juice, potato, onion, pine tar, and sassafras, as well as solutions containing vinegar, or ammonia, or iodine, or alum, potassium permanganate, or “muriatic acid.” A salt solution and a mixture of brandy and salt are also given.

The berries of poke could be rubbed on to chilblains, or twigs of hemlock spruce (Tsuga canadensis) pounded in lard to form an ointment. Walking in snow is another recommendation, as are applying lard and gunpowder, and immersing them in water and horse dung